When Heaven Calls You Home
The absence of pigment
was palpable
Silence shuttered and
locked the doors tight
Stark walls mirror’d
the perfect, invisible
Like gabardine
blanched in pure light
Alabaster carved pillars
and iv’ry
Gypsum, ghost-white,
chalk fingerprints
Pallid fabric
enlaced in chantilly
Only guilty
of innocence
Then, the first color,
violet-blue
Drew the zephyr,
where windows like veins
Flood the living room,
once void of hues,
In Earth’s breath,
bleeding in through the panes
Indigo on
wood flooring of ash
Lacquer highlighting
imperfect grains
Satin finished,
the once spotless past
Tarnished lies
in a blackberry stain
Brushed with death,
walls of blue, seeped in sadness
Every corner spoke,
cursing the heart
Casa blanca,
once faultless and stainless
Marred by sorrow,
awash in pain’s art
In the attic,
a seed laid in dust
Condensate
bubbled wallpaper tears
On a sill
stained with mildew and must
Green leaves sprouted,
soon, life would appear
Sunlight poured in
like lemonade-yellow
Clinging deep
to the wood, taking root
In the shade
of the branches, blue swallowed,
Evening fell
yet, the sunset was mute
Copper tinted,
full moon, orange, aglow;
Earth lay shadowed
in it’s pregnant phase
Where no words
paint the picture to know
Utter darkness —
Day faded past gray
There, a river
of love’s promised flood
Filled the dwelling
from floors to the gable,
Dyed in red,
living essence of blood,
House turned home,
gleaming white, like an opal
Lock and key;
Treasured heart in a skeleton
Where a spirit
of kindness and grace
Holds the deed,
sealed with wine, signed in crimson
While its copy,
in heaven, awaits